Audio only
Length8h 12m
About this audiobook
A beautifully crafted, enriching saga inspired by East Asian mythology, The Melancholy of Untold History is Minsoo Kang’s debut novel, steeped in history like R.F. Kuang’s Babel, epic in scope like Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, and lyrically exciting like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, interweaving four complex yet entertaining stories as they shape and create a nation’s literary narrative through the themes of love and grief.
A history professor mourning his wife. His young protégé’s search for a path forward. Four witty mountain gods with much to say and not enough time to listen. A gifted storyteller bringing a world into being out of thin air...
Famous for his dispelling of the national myth, the Historian understands the power of narrative. He has inspired another young professor to search for her own truths, while trying to understand the way fiction creates fact and how sometimes the past can only be understood by filling in holes with a new narrative. Which is exactly what he needs when his wife passes away to parse meaning out of a world that no longer makes sense.
Together the protégé and the Historian find comfort in each other. Yet they know their time together is fleeting, as time usually is. Only the gods have an abundance of time, and yet—the two discover—even that might not be so clear cut. Part of their homeland’s myth tells of four gods who squabbled and argued and destroyed and rebuilt time and again.
Or did they?
Because, of course, even the gods need mouthpieces on earth. And the one the Historian knows of—the elusive Storyteller—may have just been spinning tales for his own amusement and, ultimately, revenge. By fabricating the exploits of the gods, he could have set a course for certain events to unfold and a particular story to survive today.
Spanning 3,000 years and multiple voices—with tales within tales woven expertly together—The Melancholy of Untold History reveals a people and its individuals who seek to confront the hardships of life through storytelling. Mixing the East Asian mythos with a postmodern approach to standard sci-fi/fantasy narrative tropes, Minsoo Kang has created a challenging, beautiful, sad, humorous, and ultimately unforgettable novel of love, grief, and myth-making.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.9 (686)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, Amazon, LibraryThing
GenreGeneral Fiction, Fairy Tales and Folklore
Length8 hrs 12 mins
Narrated byKeong Sim
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJul 16, 2024
LanguageEnglish
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m4.6 (33.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
Dark HarmonyLaura Thalassa14h 25m4.2 (101.3K)$23
The High PriestessMaya Daniels5h4.5 (47)$15 · $0.00
The Undead PoolKim Harrison16h 13m4.4 (34.6K)$33 · $0.00
TILL WE HAVE FACES (Cupid & Psyche – The Story Behind the Myth)C. S. Lewis9h 51m4.3 (104.5K)$1 · $0.00
Grimms' Fairy TalesJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm9h 46m4.3 (256.5K)$2 · $0.00
The Once and Future King (Annotated)T. H. White28h 26m4.3 (121.8K)$2 · $0.00
Further Tales of the CityArmistead Maupin8h 10m4.3 (20.4K)$26 · $0.00
Norse MythologyNeil Gaiman6h 30m4.2 (453.7K)$24 · $0.00
A Christmas CarolCharles Dickens3h 9m4.2 (1.1M)$3 · $0.00
The Wonder ClockHoward Pyle, Katharine Pyle8h 16m4.3 (2.1K)$1 · $0.00
The Family InheritanceTricia Stringer12h 14m4.3 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Good Wife of BathKaren Brooks19h 48m4.2 (9K)$40 · $0.00
Mary JaneJessica Anya Blau9h 45m4.2 (166.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Funny Thing About Norman ForemanJulietta Henderson9h 11m4.2 (16.4K)$29 · $0.00
Orange FairytalesAndrew Lang10h 59m4.3 (2.4K)$2 · $0.00
The Arabian Nights EntertainmentsAnonymous8h 41m4.2 (238.9K)$2 · $0.00
Daughter of the Moon GoddessSue Lynn Tan15h 1m4.2 (175.7K)$33 · $0.00
The Child ThiefBrom19h 37m4.2 (24.8K)$40 · $0.00
Dragon HavenRobin Hobb19h 39m4.2 (59K)$40 · $0.00
The Happy Prince, and Other TalesOscar Wilde2h 33m4.2 (43.9K)$1 · $0.00
You may also like
Three Tales: A Simple Heart, Saint Julian the Hospitalier and HerodiasGustave Flaubert4h 1m3.9 (11.5K)$2 · $0.00
RomolaGeorge Eliot24h 46m3.7 (9.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Lyre of OrpheusRobertson Davies14h 43m4.2 (3.8K)$25
PicassoArianna Huffington19h 30m3.9 (1.4K)$25 · $0.00
Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its MetaphorsSusan Sontag4h 37m4.2 (11.5K)$15
Tales of Angria (Mina Laury, Stancliffe's Hotel) + Angria and the Angrians (Annotated)Charlotte Brontë6h 43m4.0 (1.5K)$2 · $0.00
The House of MirthEdith Wharton12h 19m4.1 (133.8K)$10 · $0.00
The Histories (Annotated)Herodotus33h 40m4.2 (60.8K)$1.99 · $0.00
KING LEARWilliam Shakespeare17h 52m4.2 (274.5K)$1 · $0.00
Arab and JewDavid K. Shipler27h 52m4.3 (5.8K)$30
The Captive MindCzeslaw Milosz9h 1m4.3 (6.3K)$20
The HistoriesHerodotus31h 43m4.3 (69.1K)$2 · $0.00
A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens14h 43m4.1 (1M)$25
The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci, the Forerunner (Annotated)Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky19h 3m4.1 (1.8K)$2 · $0.00
CHANAKYANEETIB K Chaturvedi5h 45m4.0 (6.4K)$8
The quenchless lightAgnes C. Laut6h 3m$2 · $0.00
DomitiaS. Baring-Gould11h 9m3.6 (51)$2 · $0.00
Antonina: Or, The Fall of RomeWilkie Collins18h 33m3.5 (846)$2.30
Complete Plays of Robert Browning (Annotated)Robert Browning29h 14m$2 · $0.00
Richard Wagner His Life and His Dramas (Annotated)W. J. Henderson15h 32m$2 · $0.00